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After years of quiet, a little-noticed police incident in Jerusalem last month became the first of many that sparked the explosion of the current crisis.
Twenty-seven days before the first rocket was fired by Gaza last week, Israeli police officers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The officers did not touch the Mosque’s attendants, but walked across the courtyard, leading to where they cut the cables for the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful members.
This took place on the night of April 13, which is the first day of Ramadan, a Muslim holy month. It is also Memorial Day in Israel, which is a day honoring those who have fought for the country. Israeli officials were concerned that the broadcasting of prayers from the Mosque would drown out the speech that was being given by the Israeli president at Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site located below the Mosque.
The incident was barely recognized by the outside world. The only registration of it being the confirmation by mosque officials; Israeli police declined to comment.
In hindsight, this police raid on the Mosque was one of several, seemingly small incidences that led to the sudden resumption of war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, in less than a month. And the outbreak of civil unrest between Arabs and Jews across Israel itself.
The following events have made their way to mainstream media and information and awareness about the current crisis is being rapidly spread on social media. “I’ve been seeing posts and news about it on every social media account and news outlet I’ve looked at,” says Marina Claw, a sophomore at AISG.
The deterioration that has transpired afterward has been more devastating, destructive, and fast-paced than anyone could have imagined. It has led to the worst violence between Israelis and Palestinians in years—even beyond the conflict with Hamas, which has already taken the lives of at least 145 people in Gaza and 12 in Israel.
It has also incited unrest in many cities occupying the West Bank, where Israeli forces took the lives of 11 Palestinians Friday of last week. It has resulted in a rocket being fired at Israel from a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. This prompted Jordanians to march towards Israel in protest and led Lebanese protestors to cross their southern border with Israel.
The crisis came as the Israeli government was struggling for its survival, and as Hamas, which Israel views as a terrorist group, was seeking to expand its role within the Palestinian movement. The Palestinian movement consisted of a new generation of Palestinians who were asserting their own values and goals.
It was the outgrowth of the years of restrictions and blockades in Gaza, the decades of occupation in the West Bank, and decades more of discrimination against Arabs within the state of Israel, that began this movement.
It has been seven years since the last significant conflict with Hamas, and 16 years since the last major Palestinian uprising.
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